As an emerging segment, nanobiotechnology holds great potential in the treatment of neurological disorders and cancer, which are areas of unmet medical need.
Nanotechnology has empowered scientists to manipulate materials at the atomic level. Nanobiotechnology deals with nanomaterials and their applications in life sciences.
Breakthrough applications in nanoscale therapeutics, drug delivery systems, and nano-scale scaffolds for tissue reconstruction are surfacing from laboratories into the development phase.
However, the technology has not quite taken off as expected, as scientists have expressed concerns as to its safety. In particular, activists have raised concerns about their potential toxicity to humans, animals and the environment.
Even miniscule alterations to the surface of the nano-based structures can affect how toxic they are to individual cells. Toxicity is desirable for example, for particles that kill cancer cells or harmful bacteria. In many other cases the toxicity is undesirable.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan reveals that sales of nanomaterials for use in nanobiotechnology applications generated revenues of $750 million (€615 million) in 2004. Assuming that the concerns can be addressed in time, this figure is projected to reach $2,06 billion in 2011.
Nanobiotechnology is now under growing pressure to fulfil its potential and repay the private and public funding that has been invested towards this emerging science sector.
The onus is now on participants in the nanobiotechnology applications sector to incorporate extensively researched technologies into commercially viable products.
While devising new applications for nanobiotechnology, competing companies have to take into account the costs of nanomaterials.
"Industry participants need to focus on collaborating well with interdisciplinary research partners to ensure sustainable growth of this emerging market," said Phil Webster, Frost & Sullivan's industry analyst.
The MFIC collaboration aims to do just that, with research proceeding under the direction of UML's Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence (NCOE).
Under the agreement, Microfluidics, the operating subsidiary of MFIC, will provide a Microfluidizer Processor and the new-generation MicrofluidizerMultiple Stream Mixer/Reactor (MMR) lab system, to be located on the UML campus.
The MMR is one of only two advanced, fully equipped systems of its kind in existence, having a current value of $350,000.
With the processor valued at $100,000, plus the provision of technical and financial support to projects, the MFIC contribution is valued at more than $545,000.
"We expect the Microfluidics equipment will become key manufacturing platforms for high throughput nanomanufacturing," said Prof. Julie Chen, director of the NCOE.
Researchers on campus and across industry sectors are interested in exploring nanoparticle production that is scalable from experimental quantities to production amounts, with consistency and stability.
Irwin Gruverman, CEO and chairman of MFIC, said, "We welcome this opportunity to collaborate with the substantial formulation and engineering strengths at UML."
"Our innovative systems can enable many UML projects to produce nanomaterials for pharmaceutical, among other formulations," he said.
The Microfluidizer Processor systems use a "fixed geometry" interaction chamber to force liquid streams through microchannels at extremely high pressure and velocity, and then to collide them.
The resultant collision and high shear yields nanoscale particles in stable dispersions or emulsions used in a wide variety of applications such as pharmaceuticals and coatings.
In biotechnology, the processor is ideal for "cell disruption" - puncturing cell membranes to isolate and harvest the desired protein products within while minimizing required post-disruption processing.
The Microfluidics' MMR works by performing fast, continuous chemical reactions in an ultraturbulent environment.
Rather than starting with a premixed formulation, as is the standard practice for the Microfluidizer Processor systems, researchers can introduce two or more streams of pure starting reactant materials to create nanostructures under total control and in production quantities.
The technology achieves unprecedented control of nanostructure size and uniformity. Applications may include superconductors, drug reformulations, catalysts and photographic emulsions.